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By MARCELA ROJAS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
On the Web

(Original publication: December 22, 2005)

Dozens of Brewster and Southeast residents are calling on town, village and county leaders to join a newly formed national group seeking to pressure the federal government to tighten its immigration laws and to reimburse communities financially burdened by illegal immigrants.

An online petition began circulating Tuesday requesting Brewster Mayor John Degnan, Southeast Supervisor John Dunford and Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi to become part of Mayors and Executives for Immigration Reform, a coalition founded by Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Late yesterday, at least one of those elected officials answered the call.

So far, 63 people, including Southeast Deputy Supervisor Paul Johnson, have signed the document that will be presented to local officials Jan. 4 at a joint town, village and Brewster school district meeting. The petition was co-authored by Rachel McLaughlin, Garden Street Elementary School parent.

"This is a proactive approach to deal with the challenges in Brewster," said McLaughlin, 33, of Southeast. "We have a large population of illegal immigrants. It's creating a level of lawlessness, with overcrowded apartments and loitering on the streets. Let's work with other communities that have the same problems to solve them."

The issue of illegal immigration has been brought to the community's forefront following the discovery of an unconscious drunken man behind the Garden Street school on Halloween afternoon. The incident prompted a sheriff's deputy to stand guard there daily. Immigrant day laborers have also been found living in the woods behind the school in past years. Parents, as a result, have been coming out in force to town and village board meetings to demand change.

Degnan said, after speaking with Boughton yesterday afternoon, that he decided to join the coalition. The group will create a mission statement in January, he said, and launch a Web site, www.reformthelaw.org, after the new year.

"It's a very broad, nonpolitical group that says we collectively believe that the federal policies have failed and we would like the government to address them and come up with strategies to solve them," Degnan said.

The recently elected mayor has been working with Team Brewster â€â€